Posts tagged Princeton Graduate Students United
Graduate students file for union election, marking last Ivy to do so
April 17, 2024 // Gaby Nair GS, an organizer with PGSU, told the ‘Prince’ that a “strong majority” of graduate students had signed union cards. The threshold for an NLRB election is 30 percent. PGSU was unable to provide a specific number of signatories to the ‘Prince.’ “We’re really looking forward to getting [an election] date … hopefully that process goes smoothly. We’ve seen it not go smoothly at some of our peer institutions,” Nair said, referencing unionization efforts at the University of Pennsylvania. There, graduate students initially filed for a union election in October, but were delayed by an NLRB ruling that declared roughly 300 students under certain educational fellowships ineligible. The union at Penn was set to vote this Tuesday and Wednesday, but it was rescheduled to May 1 and 2. Princeton has been slower to unionize than some of its peer institutions. Apart from Penn, all other Ivy League universities have formally recognized graduate student unions.
Amid unionization uncertainty, Princeton Graduate Students United took on broader activism
April 14, 2023 // From its early days, PGSU took positions on campus issues. In September 2017, PGSU criticized the University for stressing “diverse perspectives” when it came to “issues such as climate change, white nationalism, the rights of transgendered [sic] people and immigrants” as part of an open letter signed by mostly left-wing groups on campus. The open letter called on the University to instead “unequivocally condemn climate change denialism, white nationalism, gendered violence, and anti-immigrant hatred.” In May 2019, PGSU backed undergraduate students protesting the University’s “negligent” response to Title IX allegations writing in the ‘Prince’ that the University “is not a tax-advantaged hedge fund with a side business in issuing diplomas and greening its lawns. It serves at the pleasure of its human base of students, teachers, researchers, or workers. The needs of this constituency are its only imperatives.” PGSU’s stances elicited some controversy. Brandon Hunter, who was a graduate student in the Department of Anthropology when PGSU formed in 2016, said that the PGSU took stances that failed to accurately represent individuals in the organization. Hunter cited this as a foundational problem, saying, “The labor movement can only succeed if it is as inclusive as possible.”